Where cultural items are produced for the market, their production and distribution shall be eligible for assistance provided under industrial cooperation and trade promotion.
Article 148. Cultural Events
Cooperation shall support ACP events and exchanges and also those jointly organized by ACP. States and Member States of the Community in particularly significant cultural spheres as part of the promotion of cultural identities and intercultural dialogue.
In this context, cooperation shall support in particular contacts and meetings between groups of young people from ACP States and between ACP groups and groups of young people from Community Member States.
Article 149. Information and Communications
Cooperation in the area of information and communications shall be aimed at:
(a) increasing, by appropriate means, the ACP States' ability to contribute actively to the international flow of information, communications and knowledge; to this end it shall support, inter alia, the setting up and, strengthening of national, regional and inter-regional communications media and infrastructure;
(b) ensuring that the people of the ACP States are better informed for the purposes of mastering their own development, through cultural, economic or social projects or programmes making wide use of communications systems and taking account of traditional communications techniques;
(c) supporting programmes aimed at creating the conditions for an effective participation of the ACP States in mastery of information and new communications technology.
Chapter 3. Operations to Enhance the Value of Human Resources
Article 150.
Cooperation shall contribute to enhancing the value of human resources, in the context of integrated and coordinated programmes, through operations covering education and training, research, science and technology, participation by the population, the role of women, health and nutrition, and population and demography.
Article 151. Education and Training
1. The education and training needs of each ACP State shall be determined and taken into account at the programming stage.
2. Training operations shall take the form of integrated programmes aimed at well-defined objectives, either in a given sector or as part of a more general framework. They shall take account of each country's institutional situation and social and cultural values.
3. Education and training operations identified under the indicative programmes and within the focal sectors shall be priority objectives without excluding the possibility of other training operations outside the focal sectors of the indicative programmes.
4. These operations shall, as a matter of priority, be undertaken in the recipient ACP State or region. Where necessary, they may be undertaken in another ACP State or in a Member State of the Community. In the case of specialized training particularly suited to the ACP States' needs, training schemes may, by way of exception, be carried out in another developing country.
5. In order to meet immediate and foreseeable education and training needs, cooperation shall support the ACP States' efforts to:
(a) set up and expand. training and educational estab- lishments, particularly those of a regional nature;
(b) restructure their educational establishments and systems, update curricula, methods and technology employed and reform their basic educational institutions and systems, in particular by providing overall primary education coverage and adjusting imported systems as well as building them into devel- opment strategies;
(c) inform and make the population aware of progress in science and technology at an early age and at all stages of education and to place emphasis on curricula that incorporate science, technology and practical applications of knowledge geared to job prospects, taking account of traditional techniques;
(d) pay greater attention to the history and culture of the ACP peoples; .
(e) draw up an inventory of the skills and training and identify new technology required to achieve each ACP State's development objectives;
(f) encourage educational and training operations proper, notably literacy programmes and programmes of non-traditional forms of training, for functional and vocational purposes, as well as components of programmes that enhance the potential and status of illiterate people;
(g) exchange their experience with the Community in the field of literacy education and promote and support the participation and integration of women in education and training and give less advantaged sections of the population in rural areas access to education and training;
(h) stimulate training of instructors, educational planners and specialists in educational technology;
(i) initiate associations, twinning, exchanges and transfers of information and technology between universities and institutions of higher education in the ACP States and in the Community.
Article 152. Scientific and Technical Cooperation
1. The aim of scientific and technical cooperation shall be to:
(a) provide support for the ACP States' efforts. to acquire their own scientific and technical skills, master the technology they require for their development and participate actively in modern scientific, environmental and technological developments;
(b) target research to find solutions to economic and social problems;
(c) improve the quality of life and well-being of the people.
2. To this end, cooperation shall provide support, in addition to that under Articles 47, 85 and 229 for:
(a) identification of the ACP States' needs concerning relevant new technology (including biotechnology) and its acquisition;
(b) the execution of research programmes established by the ACP States and integrated into other development operations;
(c) associations, twinning, exchanges and transfers of information and technology between universities and research institutes in the ACP States and in the Community.
3. Research programmes shall be carried out primarily in the ACP States' national or regional framework; they shall take account of the needs and living conditions of «the people concerned, especially the rural population, while guarding against any adverse repercussions on health, the environment, employment or development. They shall support development in priority areas and comprise the following operations, as needed:
(a) the setting up or strengthening of basic or applied research institutes;
(b) scientific and technological cooperation between the ACP States or between them and the Member States of the Community or other countries, developed or developing, and with Community or international scientific institutes;
(c) the promotion of local technology, and the selection of imported technology and its adaptation to the specific needs of the ACP States;
(d) improvement of scientific and technical information and documentation to ensure the better dissemination of research trends and findings, via networks at national, subregional, regional and inter-regional levels and between ACP States and the Community;
(e) making research findings accessible to the general public.
4. These research programmes should be coordinated wherever possible with others implemented in the ACP States with the help of other sources of financing such as international research institutes, the Member States of the Community or the Community itself.
Article 153. Women In Development
Cooperation shall support the ACP States' efforts aimed at:
(a) enhancing the status of women, improving their living conditions, expanding their economic and social role and promoting their full participation in the production and development process on equal terms with men;
(b) paying particular attention to access by women to land, labour, advanced technology, credit and cooperative organizations and to appropriate technology aimed at alleviating the arduous nature of their tasks;
(c) providing easier access by women to training and education, which shall be regarded as a crucial element to be incorporated from the outset in development programming;
(d) adjusting education systems as necessary to take account in particular of women's responsibilities and opportunities;
(e) paying particular attention to the crucial role women play in family health, nutrition and hygiene, the management of natural resources and environmental protection. Dissemination of information to women and training of women in these areas are fundamental factors to be considered at the programming stage. Appropriate action shall be taken in all operations referred to above to ensure the active participation of women.
Article 154. Health and Nutrition
1. The ACP States and the Community recognize the importance of the health sector to ensuring sustainable and self-reliant development. The aim of cooperation shall be to facilitate the right of access of the greatest number of people to adequate health care, thus promoting equity and social justice, alleviating suffering, reducing the economic burden of disease and mortality, and promoting the effective participation of the community in operations to improve health and well-being.
The two parties recognize that the attainment of these aims calls for:
- a systematic, long-term approach to the improvement and strengthening of the health sector,
- the definition of comprehensive national health guidelines and programmes,
- improved management and use of existing human, financial and physical resources.
2. To this end, cooperation in this sector shall seek to support functional and sustainable health services which are financially affordable, culturally acceptable, geographically accessible and technically competent. It shall seek to promote an integrated approach to the creation of health services based on the extension of preventive care, the improvement of curative care and complementarity between hospital-based and basic-level services, in accordance with primary health care policy.
3. Cooperation in the health sector may provide support for:
- the improvement and extension of basic health services and also the strengthening of hospitals and maintenance of equipment, acknowledged as essential for the smooth operation of the health system as a whole,
- health-sector planning and management, including the strengthening of statistical services, and the formulation of health-financing strategies at national, regional and district levels, this last level being the focal point for coordination of basic services, provision of specialist services and implementation of programmes to stamp out widespread diseases,
- schemes to integrate traditional medicine in modern health care,
- essential drug programmes and strategies, including local production units for basic drugs and consumables, taking account of traditional pharmacy, in particular the use of medicinal plants, which is something that should be studied and developed,
- training of staff in the context of an overall programme, from public health planners, adminis- trators, management staff and specialists, down to the personnel working in the field, this training being tailored to the actual responsibilities borne at each level,
- support for training and information programmes and campaigns aimed at stamping out endemic diseases, improving environmental hygiene, combatting the use of narcotic drugs, the spread of transmitted diseases and other health scourges in the framework of integrated health systems,
- the building up of research institutes, university departments and specialist schools in ACP countries, notably in the field of public health.
Article 155. Population and Demography
1. Cooperation on population shall be aimed in particular at:
(a) ensuring a better overall balance in the ACP States between population, the protection of the environment and natural resources and the production of economic resources and social goods;
(b) dealing with regional imbalances, which may stem from factors such as internal migration, rural exodus, rapid urbanization and increasing environmental deterioration; :
(c) dealing with local imbalances between population and available resources.
2. Measures to achieve the objectives referred to in paragraph 1 should be made part of training programmes and projects, health or land-use planning policies and shall include:
(a) creation of statistical and demographic services in the ACP States or expansion of their capacity, with a view to collecting reliable data for the formulation of population policies;
(b) public information about demographic problems and policies;
(c) the preparation, implementation and evaluation of demographic projects or programmes;
(d) the formulation and implementation of voluntary family planning policies;
(e) the training of personnel in the ACP States to implement population policies in various sectors.
3. Such measures shall take into account focal, cultural and social practices and local economies. They shall be drawn up and carried out in accordance with the policies and programmes of ACP States and, in conformity with fundamental rights and the freely made choices of individuals concerning family size, the planning of births and the means to be used for family planning.
The implementation of such measures shall take particular account of the interaction between demographic and other policies. The role of women in these different areas shall be considered essential.
Title XII. REGIONAL COOPERATION
Article 156.
1. The Community shall support the ACP States' efforts through regional cooperation and integration to promote long-term collective and self-reliant, self-sustained and integrated social, cultural and economic development and greater regional self-sufficiency.
2. Community support shall be given within the framework of the major regional cooperation and integration objectives which the ACP States have set or will set for themselves at regional, inter-regional and international level.
3. In order to promote and strengthen the ACP States' collective capabilities, the Community shall provide effective aid enabling them to strengthen regional economic integration and consolidate cooperation of a functional type or on specific themes referred to in Articles 158 arid 159.
4. While taking account of local circumstances, regional cooperation shall transcend the concepts of geographical location. It shall also cover intra-ACP regional cooperation.
It shall include regional cooperation between ACP States and overseas territories or departments. The funding to enable the participation of these territories and departments shall be additional to funds allocated to the ACP States under the Convention.
Article 157.
1. Regional cooperation shall cover operations agreed on between:
- two or more or all ACP States,
- one or more ACP States and one or more neighbouring non-ACP States, countries or territories,
- one or more ACP States and one or more overseas territories or departments,
- two or more regional bodies of which ACP States are members,
- one or more ACP States and regional bodies of which ACP States are members.
2. Regional cooperation may also cover projects and programmes agreed upon by two or more ACP States and one or more non-ACP, non-neighbouring developing States and, when special circumstances so warrant, between one ACP State and one or more non-ACP, non-neighbouring developing States.
Article 158.
1. In the context of regional cooperation particular attention shall be paid to:
(a) evaluation and utilization of existing and potential dynamic complementarities in all relevant sectors;
(b) maximization of the use of ACP human resources as well as the optimum and judicious exploration, conservation, processing and exploitation of ACP natural resources;
(c) promotion of scientific and: technical coopération among the ACP States, including support for intra-ACP technical assistance programmes as provided for in Article 275 (e) of the Convention;
(d) acceleration of economic diversification in order to stimulate complementarity in production and intensification of cooperation and development within and between ACP regions, as well as between the latter and overseas territories and departments;
(e) promotion of food security;
(f) strengthening a network of relations among individual countries or groups of countries which have common characteristics, affinities and problems in order to solve such problems;
(g) fullest use of economies of scale wherever a regional solution is more efficient than a national solution;
(h) expansion of ACP States' markets by promoting trade among ACP States and between the ACP States and neighbouring third countries or overseas territories and departments;
(i) integration of ACP States' markets by liberalizing intra-ACP trade and eliminating tariff, non-tariff, monetary and administrative barriers.
2. Particular stress shall be put on the promotion and strengthening of regional economic integration.
Article 159.
1. Having regard to Article 158, the scope of regional cooperation shall include the following:
(a) agriculture and rural development, notably food self-sufficiency and food security;
(b) health programmes, including education, training, research and information related to primary health care and control of major diseases, including animal diseases;
(c) evaluation, development, exploitation and preservation of fishery and marine resources, including scientific and technical cooperation with a view to the surveillance of exclusive economic zones;
(d) preservation and improvement of the environment, especially through programmes to combat desertification, erosion, deforestation, coastal deterioration, the consequences of large-scale marine pollution, including large accidental discharges of petroleum or other pollutants with a view to ensuring rational and ecologically balanced development;
(e) industrialization, including the setting up of regional and inter-regional production and marketing enterprises;
(f) exploitation of natural resources, notably the production and distribution of energy;
(g) transport and communications, namely roads, railways, air and sea transport, inland waterways, postal services and telecommunications and give priority to the establishment, rehabilitation and development of road and rail links to the sea for the landlocked ACP States;
(h) development and expansion of trade;
(i) support for the setting up or strengthening of regional payment mechanisms including clearing and financing. facilities for trade;
(j) support, at the request of the ACP States concerned, for operations and. structures which promote the coordination of sectoral policies and structural adjustment efforts;
(k) assistance to ACP States to help combat drug trafficking at regional and inter-regional levels;
(I) assistance for action programmes undertaken by ACP and ACP-EEC trade and business organizations with the aim of improving the production and marketing of products on external markets;
(m) education and training, research, science and technology, informatics, management, information and communication, the establishment and strengthening of training and research institutions and technical bodies responsible for technology exchanges and cooperation among universities;
(n) other services, including tourism;
(o) cultural and social cooperation activities, including support for action-oriented programmes taken by ACP States at regional level with a view to enhancing the status of women, improving their living conditions, expanding their economic and social role and promoting their full participation in the economic, cultural and social development process.
Article 160.
1. In order to improve its impact and effectiveness, regional cooperation shall be programmed for each region at the beginning of the period covered by the Convention.
The programming, with the participation of the ACP States, shall be based on an appropriation fixed at the outset for each region and shall be the result of an exchange of views between all the national authorizing officers in the region concerned, or a regional organization which they have mandated to represent them, the Commission and its delegates:
(a) The aim of this programming shall, in accordance with Article 156 (2), be to draw up a programme specifying:
- the focal sectors for Community aid,
- the most appropriate measures and operations to achieve the objectives set for those sectors,
- the projects and programmes enabling those objectives to be attained, in so far as they have been clearly identified.
(b) The exchange of views organized for the purpose of programming shall continue for the purposes of implementation and follow-up; to that end, the national authorizing officers of the region concerned or a regional organization which they have mandated to represent them, the Commission and its delegates, and those in charge of regional projects and programmes shall meet, as a general rule, once a year to ensure that regional programmes are correctly implemented.
2. Account being taken of the objectives and inherent characteristics of regional cooperation, projects and programmes undertaken in this sphere shall be governed by the arrangements and procedures established for development finance cooperation where they apply to that context.
Article 161.
1. Regional organizations duly mandated by the ACP States concerned must play an important part in the design and implementation of regional programmes.
2. They may take part in the programming exercise and in the implementation and management of regional programmes and projects.
3. Where an operation is financed by the Community through a regional cooperation body, the financing terms applicable to the final beneficiaries shall be agreed between the Community and that body in agreement with the ACP State or States concerned.
Article 162.
A regional operation is one which helps directly to solve a development problem common to two or more countries through joint schemes or coordinated national schemes and which meets at least one of the following criteria:
(a) because of its nature or physical characteristics, it necessarily extends beyond the frontiers of one ACP State and cannot be carried out by a single country nor be divided up into national operations to be undertaken by each State on its own account;
(b) the regional formula makes it possible to achieve significant economies of scale in relation to national operations;
(c) the operation is the regional, inter-regional or intra-ACP expression of a sectoral or a global strategy;
(d) the accompanying costs and benefits are unequally shared out among the beneficiary countries.
Article 163.
The Community's contribution under regional cooperation shall, in respect of operations which could be undertaken partly at national level, be determined on the basis of the following factors: :
(a) the operation strengthens cooperation between the ACP States concerned at the level of authorities, institutions or enterprises, or through regional bodies or by removing obstacles, whether in the form or regulations or financial;
(b) two or more States have entered into mutual commitments in respect of an operation, notably as regards the distribution of facilities, investment and the running thereof.
Article 164.
1. The requests for financing from funds earmarked for regional cooperation shall be governed by the following general procedures:
(a) requests for financing shall be presented by each of the ACP States participating in a regional operation;
(b) wherever an operation of regional cooperation is such as to be of interest to other ACP States, the Commission shall, in agreement with other applicant States, inform the other ACP States or, if need be, all the ACP States. The ACP States interested shall then confirm whether they intend to participate.
Notwithstanding this procedure, the Commission shall examine without delay any request for financing as long as it has been presented by at least two ACP States. The financing decision shall be taken after the States consulted have communicated their intention;